Rottenness

2 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Rotten \Rot"ten\, a. [Icel. rotinn; akin to Sw. rutten, Dan.
     radden. See {Rot}.]
     Having rotted; putrid; decayed; as, a rotten apple; rotten
     meat. Hence:
     (a) Offensive to the smell; fetid; disgusting.
         [1913 Webster]


  
               You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate
               As reek of the rotten fens.          --Shak.
         [1913 Webster]
     (b) Not firm or trusty; unsound; defective; treacherous;
         unsafe; as, a rotten plank, bone, stone. "The deepness of
         the rotten way." --Knolles.
         [1913 Webster]
  
     {Rotten borough}. See under {Borough}.
  
     {Rotten stone} (Min.), a soft stone, called also Tripoli
        (from the country from which it was formerly brought),
        used in all sorts of finer grinding and polishing in the
        arts, and for cleaning metallic substances. The name is
        also given to other friable siliceous stones applied to
        like uses.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Syn: Putrefied; decayed; carious; defective; unsound;
          corrupt; deceitful; treacherous.
          [1913 Webster] -- {Rot"ten*ly}, adv. -- {Rot"ten*ness},
          n.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  rottenness
       n 1: in a state of progressive putrefaction [syn: {putrescence},
            {putridness}, {corruption}]
       2: the quality of rotting and becoming putrid [syn: {putrescence}]